The Four Last Things - Heaven

This is, admittedly, the hardest of the articles to write. The others are analogously closer to our experiences in this life, and so easier to talk about. But when it comes to heaven… even the greatest saints are rendered silent: not because there’s nothing to say, but because even the most superlative language falls tragically short of the real grandeur, joy, life, majesty, abundance of heaven! Music, poetry, art – all these strain toward heaven as well, yet are ultimately frustrated in their deficiency. But with humility, and by the grace of God, let us at least try, so to provide some grist for a fruitful and encouraging contemplation.

What is Heaven?

So often, when we try to understand heaven, we think of the things we enjoy in this life, but more so. How many eulogies have we heard about someone who loved golf now playing the greatest golf course in eternity? Or we flock to the latest book on a near death experience where someone has ‘come back’, which inevitably a few months later turns out to be a hoax. We long for it, we yearn for it to be real, we want assurance that our loved ones are there, we desire something more than the struggle of this life. We grasp at images that give us consolation. But are they true? They are good in that they represent the heart’s yearning for something more! But what has God revealed to us?

I could cite dozens of Bible verses (which I encourage you to look up on your own time!) but many of them offer only tiny glimpses or bizarre imagery. But if we drill down to the heart of it, they reveal that heaven is nothing less than total union with God. It is why God made us in the first place! God is love, infinite and eternal. And out of love he created beings capable of receiving, returning, and entering into that love! (This is why hell is often described as the suffering of absolute loneliness.) In heaven, we are completely known and loved. And that is just the start! In heaven, all of our powers of knowing, desiring, feeling, experiencing, choosing are tuned to the highest pitch… and then God super(naturally) charges them to be like His! We will be utterly fulfilled in every conceivable way. The greatest joys of this life give glimpses, but ultimately are nothing compared to the infinite joy of seeing and being in union with God.

Thimble or a Tub?

Will everyone be equally happy in heaven? Well, no. Everyone is completely fulfilled, but not to the same extent. Maybe you’ve heard the analogy of different sized containers. “My holy grandma is a full bucket, Mother Teresa is a full bathtub, and I’m hoping for a thimble.” A different analogy is that of the exquisitely played symphony: a world-class composer and an ordinary man can both attend, and both can exclaim, “It’s beautiful!” But the composer’s joy is greater, as he is better able to follow the sublime perfection of every measure, movement and note.

What will be the measure of our joy in heaven? How much have we strived to cooperate with grace in this life? This life is a time of preparation. It’s not about ‘wanting God’. It’s about making a decision and striving in every area of our life, in every action we take, to live for God! This, if done truly, is the furthest thing from boring.

Conclusion?

There’s so much more to be said, and I’ve received a lot of great questions from people in the course of these articles. Thank you for asking! In trying to keep these articles to one page, I had to omit some things, and shorten my descriptions of others. My hope was to whet the appetite to look into it more for yourself! Maybe a follow-up article will be written to address some, so please feel free to contact me with questions.

Ultimately, these things should be brought to our prayerful conversation with God, for this cannot stay in the head, but has to make it to the heart.

God bless you, and let’s encourage one another as we strive together for heaven!